Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Promote ESOPs

The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) reports that the bill would:

allow owners of stock in an S corporation to have the
same opportunity as owners of C corporation stock currently have to
defer taxation on gains made from the sale to a qualifying Employee
Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP)

permit lenders to S corporations with 50% or more
ownership through an ESOP to exclude 50% of the interest from the loan
if used to acquire stock for the ESOP

set up an office in the Department of the Treasury to provide technical assistance to S corporations with ESOPs

provide that companies that are 50% or more owned by an
ESOP that were previously qualified under one of the various Small
Business Administration set-aside programs (the most important of these
are for minority- and woman-owned companies) to continue to qualify if,
after the ESOP gaining 50% or more ownership, the workforce remains
substantially the same